China's most cherished creature

Dragon artifacts celebrate a year of auspiciousness and vigor, Lin Qi reports.

Of the 12 Chinese zodiac signs, the dragon (long in pinyin) is the only animal that doesn't exist in the real world. But despite its mythological status, the dragon is not purely imaginary, as it displays the physical features of a number of different animals.

Speculation about which creatures the dragon has borrowed from include the serpent, crocodile, fish, lizard, salamander, horse, ox, deer, tiger and silk worm.

In his thesis on Fuxi, the mythological emperor with a serpent's body, the renowned scholar Wen Yiduo, who died in 1946, wrote that the dragon is a synthesis of many different totem animals, a "composite" formed during the merging of various tribes, whose respective totems were combined. As the body of the dragon resembles a snake, Wen suggested that the creature was the emblem of the most powerful tribe — likely the family of Fuxi — that had absorbed other clans into its forces.

The dragon is a symbol of distinction that unites and motivates Chinese living in different corners of the world. Images of it make repeated appearances in festivals and on ceremonial occasions. So, when it comes to celebrating the Year of the Dragon, it is not surprising that it appears even more frequently.